Encyclopaedia Britannica

By Robert Channick There have been more than 7 million sets of Encyclopaedia Britannica printed and sold over the years, an indispensable home reference library lining bookshelves, fueling dreams and salvaging homework assignments everywhere. You can look it up. Online. That's because after 244 years, the Chicago-based company is shelving its venerable printed edition in favor of its Web-based version, completing a digital transition and marking the end of one of longest chapters in publishing history.

If you haven't heard of Baroness Barbe-Julie von Krudener, you've missed a good yarn. She was a child of wealth and privilege in the 19th century Governorate of Livonia. A life of social climbing, dalliance, literary ambition and finally religious conversion led to a Rasputin-like influence over Alexander I, czar of Russia. And that was not all. I discovered the now obscure story of the baroness while paging through the "Jerez-Libe" volume of my 1950 edition of the Encyclopaedia Britannica.

Blue Chip Software, which is based in Canoga Park, makes software that teaches business skills. It is the third educational software company acquired by the Chicago encyclopedia publisher. Terms of the acquisition were not disclosed.

Two months after Eastman Kodak Co.declared bankruptcy, another household name is succumbing to the relentless march of technology. Encyclopaedia Britannica announced Tuesday that it is discontinuing its best-known product, the 32-volume collection of reference material on everything from aardvarks to zygotes. The company is shifting its focus to the Internet, where it offers a virtual version of its books and a slate of fee-based educational services. The company's ability to sell pricey bound volumes for 244 years is a testament not just to the power of its brand, but also to the demand for a convenient, reliable source of information.

If you haven't heard of Baroness Barbe-Julie von Krudener, you've missed a good yarn. She was a child of wealth and privilege in the 19th century Governorate of Livonia. A life of social climbing, dalliance, literary ambition and finally religious conversion led to a Rasputin-like influence over Alexander I, czar of Russia. And that was not all. I discovered the now obscure story of the baroness while paging through the "Jerez-Libe" volume of my 1950 edition of the Encyclopaedia Britannica.

Encyclopaedia Britannica Put on Block: The oldest continually published English-language encyclopedia has hired New York investment firm Lazard Freres & Co. to find a buyer and could fetch up to $500 million, the New York Times reports in today's editions, citing executives familiar with the plans. The Chicago-based company has limped through three years of losses and dwindling sales, the newspaper says. The privately held company does not publicly report its profit or losses.

The article may have had a catchy headline but it also is a misleading one. The use of dogs in research experimentation is hardly an animal rights issue. It is a scientific issue. The Britannica hired Dr. Michael Fox, an authority in his field, to write on a subject which he knows well. It is shocking that there are those in the scientific community who want to suppress the facts in this issue. Perhaps this is why we still have heart disease, cancer and diabetes as major causes of human deaths, as they have been for many years, despite millions upon millions of dollars spent for experiments on dogs and other animals.

Almost two weeks after the venerable Encyclopaedia Britannica made a brief online debut, the site has yet to reopen its virtual pages to visitors. The Chicago-based company announced that on Oct. 20 it would make available for free on its Web site (http://www.britannica.com) the contents of its 32-volume encyclopedia. But the site screeched to a halt when hungry knowledge seekers signed on in droves during the first free research day.

Two months after Eastman Kodak Co.declared bankruptcy, another household name is succumbing to the relentless march of technology. Encyclopaedia Britannica announced Tuesday that it is discontinuing its best-known product, the 32-volume collection of reference material on everything from aardvarks to zygotes. The company is shifting its focus to the Internet, where it offers a virtual version of its books and a slate of fee-based educational services. The company's ability to sell pricey bound volumes for 244 years is a testament not just to the power of its brand, but also to the demand for a convenient, reliable source of information.

Arthur Miller once said that Willy Loman died because he foolishly believed it was a law that someone who wasn't a success didn't deserve to live. Ki Yup Chang's was the opposite tragedy. He believed in the system, and it rewarded him. He richly deserved a longer life. Nevertheless, his too was the death of a salesman. Chang was already 49 when he came to this country, emigrating from Korea with the same hopes for a better life as millions of immigrants before him. That was about 20 years ago.

By Robert Channick There have been more than 7 million sets of Encyclopaedia Britannica printed and sold over the years, an indispensable home reference library lining bookshelves, fueling dreams and salvaging homework assignments everywhere. You can look it up. Online. That's because after 244 years, the Chicago-based company is shelving its venerable printed edition in favor of its Web-based version, completing a digital transition and marking the end of one of longest chapters in publishing history.

Warren E. Preece, 85, a former editor of the Encyclopaedia Britannica who revamped the design of the reference work in the 1970s, died Wednesday in Philadelphia of heart failure, according to the New York Times. According to a 1974 Time magazine article, the editors at Britannica decided that "an alphabetical collection of unrelated articles -- the traditional Britannica format since the first edition in 1771 -- was no longer adequate in an era of explosive growth in human knowledge."

Chicago-based Britannica.com Inc., the online offspring of the venerable Encyclopedia Britannica, resurrected its Web site after an outage that lasted more than two weeks. Britannica.com last month made the entire contents of its 32-volume encyclopedia available for free online, drawing a stampede of visitors that overwhelmed the Web site. The company hopes to build Britannica.com (http://www.britannica .com/) into a Web portal to rival the likes of Yahoo Inc. and America Online Inc.

Almost two weeks after the venerable Encyclopaedia Britannica made a brief online debut, the site has yet to reopen its virtual pages to visitors. The Chicago-based company announced that on Oct. 20 it would make available for free on its Web site (http://www.britannica.com) the contents of its 32-volume encyclopedia. But the site screeched to a halt when hungry knowledge seekers signed on in droves during the first free research day.

For more than two centuries, Encyclopaedia Britannica was the standard-bearer collection of knowledge in the English-speaking world, sold only through its own sales force at a premium price. But now the publication is on the verge of becoming the buggy-whip manufacturer of the Information Age. A shell of its former self, Britannica is taking the risky step--starting today--of posting the entire contents of its 32-volume set on the Internet for free.

Assuming you're eating regularly and have a place to live, few things are more useful than an encyclopedia. And few encyclopedias can match the authority or scope of the Encyclopaedia Britannica. Now, after extensive Internet testing, Britannica is officially open for business on-line.